The politics of symbolic forms
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Masry Al-Youm
by Amr el-Zant - (Opinion) September 12, 2011 - 12:00am

Where does Israel live in the Egyptian public imagination? Some unfortunate instances are usefully recalled: Jewish settlement in Palestine; a few wars, and the loss of Palestine; bloody incursions into Lebanon and Gaza; the destruction of Arab cities, including the Suez Canal towns. Then there is the saga of intelligence struggles against the Israeli espionage machine, folklore that captured many an Egyptian mind as it emerged from screens big and small.

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In Israel, Cairo attack deepens sense of siege
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg - September 11, 2011 - 12:00am

After a week in which Israel’s diplomats were forced out of Turkey and Egypt, for years its regional allies, and facing a possible United Nations vote recognizing a Palestinian state, the country is experiencing a deepening sense of siege. Televised scenes of Egyptian protesters storming the Israeli Embassy in Cairo on Friday, and dramatic media accounts of the threat faced by six security men who were trapped for hours inside, summoned up for many Israelis nightmare scenarios of a lynch by an Arab mob.

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Israel deploys drones over Egyptian border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Daniella Cheslow - (Analysis) September 8, 2011 - 12:00am

TEL AVIV, Israel — A senior Israeli military official says the air force has deployed a special unit of unmanned surveillance aircraft along its long, porous border with Egypt after militants crossed the frontier and killed eight Israelis last month. The official says the drones are monitoring both sides of the 150-mile (250-kilometer) border, though the aircraft are flying only in Israeli airspace. In the wake of the attack, Israel also has sent more troops along the border.

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Israeli settlers say open-fire rules against Palestinian rioters vague
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
(Analysis) September 8, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Some leaders among the Israeli settlement movement in the West Bank are concerned that existing open-fire orders for local civilian rapid-response teams may hobble their ability to respond effectively to possible attacks by Palestinians against their towns. In recent weeks, senior Israeli civilian and army security officials have refreshed community security chiefs on protocol and procedures as a part of Operation "Summer Seeds."

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Israel vows 'tolerance' for Palestinian protests
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Analysis) September 6, 2011 - 12:00am

TEL AVIV, Israel (Reuters) -- A senior officer said on Monday that Israeli soldiers would show "much more tolerance" towards Palestinian demonstrations than in the past thanks to riot-control training and new equipment designed to reduce injuries and deaths. Israel is wary of large-scale protests by Palestinians as their leaders sidestep stalled peace talks by appealing for United Nations statehood recognition this month. A similar deadlock in 2000 triggered a Palestinian revolt that Israel fueled with military crackdowns, resulting in a heavy death toll among unarmed protesters.

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Fate of the Egyptian – Israeli peace treaty
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Bilal Hassen - (Opinion) September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

The Eilat (Um al-Rushrash) Fedayeen [commando] attack on a number of Israeli targets which took place on 18 August 2011 [Southern Israel cross-border attacks], and the implications of this, continue to gather pace like a snowball rolling down a mountainside. Information surrounding this attack remains vague, and there is no concrete information about those who carried it out, or where they came from. Israel claim that the perpetrators came from Gaza, crossed the Sinai Peninsula, entered Egyptian territory, and attacked Israeli targets from Egyptian soil.

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Israeli army trains West Bank settlers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 30, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israeli army is training settlers in the West Bank to repel any violent protests in the territories when the Palestinians try to secure UN membership next month, the military said. Asked to confirm a story first reported in Haaretz newspaper, the army issued a written statement saying it was in the process of training settlement response teams, "to deal with any possible scenario." But it declined to give details on "operational preparedness."

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Netanyahu's show of 'restraint' is meaningless
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amir Oren - (Opinion) August 30, 2011 - 12:00am

The government of Benjamin Netanyahu excels at presenting what is self-evident as the peak of wisdom. The decision to make do with a series of air strikes on the Gaza Strip following the terror attack north of Eilat a week and a half ago, was celebrated as tremendous brilliance. By extension of this logic, a minister who will suddenly announce that two and two equals four would expect the Nobel Prize in Mathematics ?(and being turned down will be explained as anti-Semitism?).

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Vilnai: 10-man terror cell planning attack from Sinai
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz - August 30, 2011 - 12:00am

A cell of more than 10 terrorists is currently in the Sinai with plans to carry out an attack against Israel along its border with Egypt, Home Front Defense Minister Matan Vinai said on Tuesday. “Islamic Jihad is trying for a long time to perpetrate the attacks from the Sinai and the of Id al-Fitr is a good time for attacks,” Vilnai said during a visit to an Elbit Systems factory in Sderot in reference to the Muslim holiday which begins on Tuesday. “The defense establishment has concrete intelligence regarding plans by a terror cell from the Sinai consisting of more than 10 people.”

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Calls to raise Israel-Egypt treaty troop limits
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Amy Teibel - August 29, 2011 - 12:00am

A deadly attack on Israel from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula has sparked calls to raise the number of Egyptian troops allowed in the area under the historic peace treaty with Israel, to counter a surge in Islamist militant activity. But some in Israel, afraid the recent revolt in Egypt might lead to the collapse of the pact, are wary of altering it in any way. Israel says Palestinian militants crossed from Gaza into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, made their way along the Israel-Egypt border, crossed back into Israel, attacked Israeli vehicles and killed eight people on Aug. 18.

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